


Keeping the Promises

by LittleRedRidingHood



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Angst, Clara Kent - Freeform, Dorks in Love, F/M, Female Clark, Genderbending, Genderswap, I'm Bad At Tagging, Rewrite, Rule 63, Spoilers, SuperBat, in case you haven't noticed, my take on BvS, seriously what's this, yeah sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-14 15:44:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8019757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRedRidingHood/pseuds/LittleRedRidingHood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clara Kent, reporter at <em>the Daily Planet</em>, alias: Superwoman.</p>
<p>Bruce Wayne, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, alias: Batman.</p>
<p>What happens when those two heroes, prejudiced as hell, meet and can't get along?</p>
<p>aka</p>
<p>A BvS rewrite with fem!Clark that nobody asked for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Well, hello everyone! I’m a huge fan of fem!Clark and SuperBat–Clark/Bruce so I wanted to try it out with Batman v Superman. Personally, even though its lacks, I really liked the movie and I’d like to hear your view on that too. And actually thinking about this now, maybe I should’ve done Man of Steel first but… oh, well.
> 
> Anyway, there are a few things I should mention. Fem!Clark (well Clara in this fic cause I really like that name) and Lois are best of the friends. Like sisters, really. So any romantic scene or any kissing scene is basically Lois trying to comfort Clara or hug her to death. I’m making additions and some changes in important scenes, to establish Lois/Clara friendship and make ground to Bruce/Clara, just so you know.
> 
> Oh and btw, Superwoman’s suit is like the female version from the movie, with a red belt. Because personally, even though I really like Superman’s classic suit –with the yellow belt and the red undies outside- somehow I liked the new 52 suit better, and the one in the movie resembles it.  
> English isn’t my mother tongue and this is unbeta’d so point out any mistakes you see. And obviously, MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! Well, I think that’s it.
> 
> Disclaimer: I wish I do, but I own nothing. Anything recognizable belongs to… well, not to me.

### Chapter 1

“Hey!” Clara Kent said, just as she was entering to the living room of the flat she and Lois shared, a groceries bag in her arms. 

Lois Lane lifted her head to look at Clara from the floor she was crouching, then turned back to her dirty clothes on the suitcase and only said, “Hey,” without much enthusiasm.

Clara could guess what was bothering her friend, it was about what happened in the desert and its aftermath. Obviously she’d saw the news too, but she decided not to talk about it. So she gestured the bag she was carrying and said, “I was going to cook. Tonight it’s my turn, you know.” 

But Lois was having none of it. She put one of her coats down and softly said, “They held hearings about what happened. They’re saying that-”

“I don’t care,” Clara said, cutting in. “I don’t care what they’re saying. My best friend could have been blown up or shot. Think of what could have happened, Lo.” 

“Well, think about what did happen, Clara.” 

“I didn't kill those men if that's what they think –If that's what you're saying.” 

Lois sat down fully, looked up at her tall friend straight in the eye and said, “I'm saying I want to understand what happened. I'm saying, thank you for saving my life Clara, but I'm also saying there's a cost.” 

Clara released a troubled breath and put the bag aside. She gently sunk to the carpet, in front of her friend and hugged her legs to herself. The loose plaid shirt she wore was baggy enough to hide her defined muscles and wide shoulders. Her impossibly blue eyes looked cloudy with sadness while she ran a hand into the dark curls that escaped from her messy bun. Just as she was taking her glasses off, “I know,” she silently said. “I know, Lo. But I still would’ve come and still would’ve saved you. You’re my only friend and I can’t bear to lose you.” 

Lois reached out and held Clara’s long-fingered, slim hand. She looked at their entwined fingers. Clara’s hand was nearly half times larger than her own. It felt so soft, her skin flawless, but Lois knew how those hands can be while holding someone who tried to hurt people. _‘How far can someone be from being human, so divine and perfect and flawless yet… feel like a human?’_ she thought. Her friend’s guilt for what happened and her feel of duty to protect everyone was crushing Lois too. She didn’t know how they could manage their way out of this but she knew that they were going to do it together. 

So she looked at Clara’s face and with a bossy voice said, “Enough of this gloomy attitude, Smallville. And for your own sake, I hope you’re planning to cook something extremely delicious for us tonight, because I’m hungry as hell.” 

Clara flashed her the briefest of the smiles and reached for the paper bag. She took out a package, opened it, revealing a large, delicious looking chocolate muffin and held it to Lois. “Here, a sneak peak of what we’re eating tonight.” 

She finally managed to laugh when Lois tried to shove the whole thing in her mouth. 

\----

“We’re criminals, Alfred,” Bruce Wayne said, hiding behind the devil-may-care attitude while looking at the newspapers and the photo of the man he branded last night. “We’ve always been criminals, nothing has changed.” 

“Oh, yes it has, sir,” said Alfred with a dark voice. “Everything's changed.” Then he reached for one of the monitors, pressing one button and opening all the data Bruce had been gathering about the infamous Superwoman. Bruce could see from his face that Alfred didn’t approve his thoughts or his stalking levels. Because he had filed everything there’s to know about her. Every article, every photo, every security camera records, every interview. So he knew her all her strengths and weaknesses. Well, what else was he going to do, he was a detective. Alfred should’ve known better. 

He turned his head away from the monitor but obviously Alfred wasn’t done. “Men fall from the sky. And gods hurl thunderbolts. Innocents die. That's how it starts. The fever, the rage, the feeling of... powerlessness that turns good men... cruel.” 

There was no satisfaction left in Bruce while he was watching his oldest friend walk away from him. 

\---- 

Clara was making breakfast for herself and Lois that morning. She was wearing a comfy, white shirt which was three sizes bigger and a pair of plain, black undies under that. One would look at her tall physique, her shapely hips, her long legs, her bosoms, her dark long hair, her bright blue eyes and her beautiful face, and might tell her that she looked like a goddess, an angel or at least a model, but Clara would furiously blush, stutter and say ‘alien’ with a shy voice. But obviously no one knew how she looked under all the loose clothing she wore and Clara was totally okay with that. She had no time for compliments and romance. 

She was taking extra care of the eggs when the interview she’s been listening caught her attention. She turned to the TV and leaned to the backside of a chair, watching carefully.

The things the woman said, was making her reconsider if being Superwoman, if trying to save lives was a good thing when she was also causing some serious damage. 

She was thinking if getting rid of the Zod was a good thing in the first place. 

\---- 

After Lex Luthor finished his… _interesting_ speech, Clara decided to do some work and started a conversation about books with one of the guests. Since all of the guests there were important, Clara thought he would count. 

The man seemed kind but somewhat bored so she kept the interview short. As she was writing down some of the things he said, Clara felt like someone was watching her. Her instincts and the heightened senses were never wrong so she lifted her head up and saw a tall, brunette woman dressed in a dark red dress, watching her, without even trying to hide it. Clara suddenly felt self-conscious, the woman was beautiful and had this domineering aura around her, but she still met the woman’s stare squarely. After a while of staring, the woman slowly nodded at Clara, as if in some kind of acknowledgement. Clara found herself confusedly nodding back. Then she silently watched the woman blend into the crowd and just stared at nothing for a while. 

That was when a cheery voice exclaimed, “Clarabelle! Ah, God, as gorgeous as ever!”

When she turned around she found Lex Luthor was looking at her with a twisted grin on his face. They knew each other from some of her previous interviews with him. He was even kind enough to let her see his laboratories for once. Clara didn’t particularly like him but he was… alright to talk with. For a while, at least. 

Lex came closer and leaned down –more liked bowed down all the way to the floor- and kissed her hand. 

Clara nodded at him. “Mr. Luthor.” 

Lex suddenly shook his head. “Oh, how many times do I have to tell you, Clara? Call me Lex.” 

“Uh, okay, Lex.” She tried to find something nice to say before starting the interview. “Uh, thank you for inviting me tonight.” 

“Oh, nonsense, you are one of the few reporters I’m actually fond of. You know I’d grant you anything, Clarabelle.” 

There was something disturbing in his voice while saying this but Clara decided to ignore it and smile politely. 

“Ah, there you go! You should smile more often, dear, it looks good on you. Anyway, come along now, I have someone over there I’d like to introduce to you.” He clasped her hand and started to drag her to the direction he gestured. 

Clara was having a hard time walking around but she tried not to show it. She was wearing a light gray pants-suit, a pair of heels –which, due to her own height, was totally unnecessary, it was making her tower over most of the people and she was trying really hard not to trip over herself, but Lois made her wear them- a dark colored button up shirt to conceal her costume and a jacket that goes with the suit. Her dark, wavy hair was on its usual messy bun and she had glasses on her face, hiding her identity from the rest of the world. When Lex finally stopped, he gave her a little push and stepped aside. When she looked at the man in front of her, she recognized him from the exaggerated parade he made before the event had started: the Gotham billionaire, Bruce Wayne. He was even more handsome up close but there was something in his demeanor, something hidden and too… _mysterious_ she couldn’t put her finger on. They were about the same height but with the arrogance dripping from the way he smirked was making him more… well, arrogant and somehow taller or stronger. He was nicely dressed in a dark blue suit, his hair was styled carefully, everything about him was… elegant. Or whatever that made people billionaire business men. 

When she gathered her thoughts together she realized Lex had already started talking. “Bruce, old friend, it’s so nice to have you finally here in Metropolis after all these years.” 

“Well, I thought I come drink you dry,” Wayne said with that little smirk on his face. 

“Well, you're very welcome. You should hop the hub more often though, I love to show you my labs. Maybe we could be partners on something. My R&D is up to all sorts of no good.” 

Wayne only politely nodded and smiled. 

“Oh, I almost forgot, Bruce Wayne, meet Clara Kent from _the Daily Planet._ She’s the loveliest piece you can see around. And her articles are of course as sweet as herself.” 

Wayne pulled that perfectly handsome smirk on again and slightly leaned down to kiss her hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Miss Kent.” 

“Likewise, Mr. Wayne.” 

Then a tall woman with glasses came over to them and said, “Mr. Luthor, the governor.” 

“Oh, well, I’ll leave you two to it. Excuse me.” And he was gone, leaving a slightly awkward Clara with an amused looking Bruce Wayne. 

She decided to calmly –or as calmly as possible around this man- do her job –be a reporter. So she cleared her throat and started talking. “Well, Mr. Wayne-” 

“Please,” said the man with an easy voice. “Call me Bruce.” 

Clara frowned a little and ignored the interruption. “I was wondering if I could ask you a few things about our Gotham column.” 

“Well, once a reporter, always a reporter, huh?” Wayne said, his smirk never leaving. 

Clara tried to keep her cool and asked, “Mr. Wayne, what's your position on the bat vigilante in Gotham?” 

“Are you free after the party, Miss Kent?” Wayne was irritatingly uncaring about her questions and it was starting to get her angry. “Maybe I can escort you to my hotel, and we could have a drink? Hm?” 

How dare this… _man?!_

Who did he think he was? Who did he think _she_ was? Someone who could be impressed with money and good looks and charming ways? Hell. No. 

“No, Mr. Wayne, I’m not,” she said with a hard voice and a deeper frown. “I have things I have to handle and a job to do, which is to make a _genuine_ interview with the guests. Not all of us are flirty billionaires around here.” 

Wayne looked at her for a second, like he was trying to figure her out. Then he smirked and said, “Miss Kent, no one cares if the interviews are _genuine_ anymore. This isn’t the 30’s.” 

“But I do. And if you don’t want to answer my question, or if you don’t want to answer it _genuinely,_ then I better leave. Thank you for your time-” 

Just as she was turning around and leaving he grabbed one of her wrists, making her stop. There was something in his eyes, a small but genuine spark under that façade, as if he’d found her amusing or unbelievable. His hand was calloused and hard, obviously have faced some hard work and totally not what Clara expected from a billionaire. 

“I’m sorry if I offended you, Miss Kent, but you see, I have a tendency to be distracted by beautiful things. Though, I think answering a couple of questions wouldn’t hurt me. But only because you asked.” 

He let go off her wrist with an exaggerated wink and Clara tried to calm down –from her anger and from that tingling feeling coming from the skin where Wayne had touched her. It was… _different_ and that scared her. But she managed to keep her posture and fixed the glasses on her face. 

Before she could start talking again Wayne said, “Wait, I own _the Daily Planet,_ right?” 

_‘Calm down, Kent, you asked him to stop flirting and treat like a reporter.’_

“Or was that the other guy?” 

_‘Oh, for God’s sake! How cocky can he get?! Jackass...’_

“Civil liberties have been trampled on in your city, Mr. Wayne,” she managed. “Good people are living in fear.” 

“Don't believe everything you hear, Miss Kent.” 

“I've seen it, Mr. Wayne. He thinks he's above the law.” 

There was a slight pause. Then Wayne started again, but there was something in his voice. He was done with being uncaring, he was serious and… in defense. “The Daily Planet criticizing those who think they're above the laws. A little hypocritical, wouldn't you say? Considering every time your hero saves a cat out of a tree, you write a puff piece editorial, about an alien who... if she wanted to, could burn the whole place down. And there wouldn't be a damn thing we can do to stop her.” 

Clara frowned again. “Most of the world doesn't share your opinion, Mr. Wayne.” 

“Maybe it's the Gotham City and me, we just...have a bad history with _freaks_ dressed like clowns.” 

Clara stared at the man with narrowed eyes as he returned the look determinedly. 

Then… 

Clara casted her eyes down, couldn’t manage to look him in the eye anymore as she felt the guilt of the recent events falling to her shoulders and crushing her again. But… all she ever wanted was… to help people. 

Before she could dwell on further she heard the British accented male voice she heard before talking to the one piece phone on Wayne’s ear. “That's 7 minutes. Looks like the transfer's complete.” Then Wayne started moving. “Well, it was lovely to meet you, Miss Kent, I hope we’ll meet again.” And he started walking away. 

Clara didn’t even think twice about following Wayne. He was subtle, alright, but not to her. She saw where he was going but her attention scattered when she heard the news from the television in the kitchens. 

What Wayne had to do in Lex’s house was suspicious but it could wait. At the moment, she needed to help people, just like she promised to herself and the rest of the world. 

She needed to be Superwoman.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I'm back with another chapter, yay! First of all, I would like to thank 'Garota de Ipanema' for suggesting that Clara could be pictured as Emily Didonato. And go check Emily out if you don't know who she is, she's one hot lady, I'm tellin ya. Secondly, I kinda have an internet problem so I don't know when the next update will be but I hope it won't take me too much time to get my wifi back (I miss u sooo much, my love...)
> 
> Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, and I hope I didn't disappoint anyone :))

### Chapter 2

Just as the Batmobile was taking a sharp turn to catch the LexCorp truck, Batman suddenly stepped down to the brakes. Because standing in his way was the woman he hoped he’d never meet. There she was, with that blue suit, hugging every curve and muscle she had, her red cape flaring behind her and the S shaped shield standing proudly on her chest, Superwoman, who was waiting calmly. And she showed no effects of being hurt when Batman was still too slow to stop the Batmobile and hit her. In fact, she was still waiting after the Batmobile had crashed into her (it was like crashing a brick wall) and got out of control to hit a real wall.

The Batman had lost the truck and he the Batmobile was a ruin because of her.

And now he was even more angrier than he had ever been.

The Woman of Steel ripped off the doors to the Batmobile like they were made of paper and threw them away. Suddenly feeling very exposed, Batman stared up at her face.

With the way her long, wavy, dark hair was blowing in the wind, the way her impossibly blue eyes were cold and steely with controlled anger, the way her beautiful face was frowning down at him and the way she was standing in her tall, statuesque body was making it really hard for Batman not to see her as a goddess from the space.

But Batman wasn’t someone who was easily intimidated or impressed.

He got up and stood in front of her, as if challenging her to do something to him, something that would justify his actions later.

Instead she just said, “Next time they shine your light in the sky, don’t go to it. The Bat is dead. Bury it. Consider this mercy.” Then she started to turn away, clearly stating that they were done.

Her aura of dominance was really getting to Batman’s nerves. So, unable to help himself, he said, “Tell me,” in his robotic voice, effectively stopping the Kryptonian. He would realize later how idiotic it was to ask _this_ question to a _woman_ –alien or not. “Do you bleed?”

The look she threw behind her shoulder was telling what she thought about his stupidity. She took off to the dark skies with a sudden move, leaving Batman glaring after her.

“You will,” he promised in a vengeful voice.

And Batman always kept his promises.

\----

And then there was Superwoman.

While she was walking to him, Batman tried not to be intimidated from the scowl on her face. When she killed all the men that were prisoners like him, with the red beams coming from her eyes he tried not to fear for his own life. When she was right in front of him, with this scary spark of rage in her eyes, Batman finally thought he was done for. That was it, she was going to kill him.

But she did something very surprising, she raised her hand to his face and removed his Batman cowl in an… aggressively hot way –not that he would ever admit even thinking that.

Superwoman lowered the hand that was still holding his cowl, turned to look his face and said, “She was my best friend. My sister. And you took her from me.”

She slowly reached for him and touched his chest, the exact place where his heart was, and… showed her fingers through him.

He couldn’t help the scream of agony that ripped itself from his throat.

And then he was awake.

After a second of panicking and clutching his chest, he realized he was lying naked in a bath tub. When he looked around he couldn’t recognize the place he was in, this wasn’t his manor –not one of them, at least. But he didn’t look like he was forced to be here, his clothes was sitting on a nearby stool, the water was warm, just like how he liked it. Then he saw the red rose on his clothes. Maybe he was in one of the one-night-stands’ place, who knew? He certainly didn’t as he never cared.

Then suddenly the door to the bathroom opened and with a pleasant surprise, Bruce recognized the woman he saw: It was Clara Kent, from _the Daily Planet,_ with a laptop and a bunch of papers in her arms. Bruce found it a little odd –because in their first meeting, Clara clearly stated that she didn’t like him very much- but he wasn’t going to complain. The woman was beautiful with her jean clad long legs and strikingly blue eyes, and he realized he didn’t even mind the glasses. Well, Bruce knew himself; pretty girl, bad habit.

When she finally looked up from the laptop and noticed him she rolled her eyes and said “Bruce,” in a way that made his skin crawl. _‘But what is this feeling?’_ he hesitantly thought. Yes, she was attractive but this feeling was too much, more than he ever experienced and it definitely made no sense. He might not have remembered the last night but he was sure that they only met once before.

“How many times do I have to find you in the tub without my permission?” she asked with an easy voice.

Bruce found himself smirking. Clara rolled her beautiful eyes again but smiled, nevertheless.

“I can’t believe I accepted that night you offered in the first place.”

_‘She had accepted?’_ he thought. _‘Of course she did, don’t you remember that amazing night you shared and the others that followed it? C’mon Bruce, you can’t have drank that much.’_

While Clara was putting the laptop and the papers down, Bruce reached for the rose and hold it out for her. “Wouldn’t you join me?”

When she laughed, he felt like he wasn’t hiding beneath the billionaire playboy mask. He was feeling… genuinely happy and… at _home._ This was definitely a foreign feeling but it was amazing. This woman was amazing.

Clara took the rose between his fingers and placed it on top of the papers. Then she laughed again and stepped into the tub. With a predatory move, Bruce grabbed her by the waist, pulled her in the water and silenced the yelp that came from her with his lips.

The way they were kissing was hot, hard and dizzying. When he pushed his tongue inside her mouth, unlike the most women he had been with, she responded with the same strength. His hands was exploring her body and the curves she hid under the loose, plaid shirt. She was licking her way through his mouth and grinding down when he was pulling her closer to himself. And it was doing unspeakable things to Bruce and to the little amount of self-control he had left.

After a couple of minutes –or maybe hours- his hands buried themselves into her hair and pulled away the pencil that was holding it in a messy bun. His movements were curt and sloppy so he knocked her glasses away from her face, making them fall to the ground.

He broke the kiss for a moment to look at Clara’s face. The sun coming from the windows was illuminating her features. She had a face was like a goddess’, divinely perfect, in no need of makeup. Skin, so soft and flawless. Eyes, which were the bluest blue he ever saw. Hair, as dark as the night itself. _‘Like a certain superheroine’s,’_ he thought, like in a haze. Then it hit him, he finally had figured it out.

But surprisingly, Bruce did nothing. Nothing but gently brush her hair from her face. “You’re beautiful.”

She looked sheepish and shy as she cast her eyes away, letting him see her long, thick lashes. He softly tilted her head up and kissed her again and she responded even more fiercely than before with burying her fingers in his hair and pulling the short strands, making him shamelessly moan.

So when he felt like the extra layers on her was too agonizing, he suddenly got up, hooked her legs around his waist and stepped out of the bathtub, carrying a giggling Clara, without even breaking their kiss.

\----

Bruce was watching his sleeping angel in the middle of the white, messy sheets. She was lying face down, the sheets were cowering her shapely hips and a small part of her legs, revealing her impossibly hot back and her miles-long, milky legs. That magnificent curve of her back, that dimples of Venus, that shoulder blades, that gold, unmarked skin… Her arms was circling her pillows, showing off her lean arm muscles. Her hair was messy and everywhere, her sleeping face was serene and beautiful. The only thought on his mind was, _‘She really looks like a goddess from the Greek sculptures.’_

Then suddenly those plump and pink lips moved, saying, “Stop staring.” After that, the blue eyes slowly opened, sleepy gaze focusing on Bruce.

Bruce was speechless because of being caught for a moment, then he simply, shamelessly stated, “I can’t help it.”

Clara blushed a little and Bruce was at loss of words once more. When he finally recovered, which took him at least half a minute, he cut the silence, saying “Well, I think you’d like to know that you broke your bedrest.”

She got up on her elbows and looked at the bend iron bars.

“And you tore apart some of the sheets.” Bruce showed her a bunch of torn white fabric.

She sighed and said, “Ah, man.”

Bruce laughed at Clara’s pouting face and decided he hasn’t felt like this in his entire life. There was more than physical satisfaction to this relationship and thinking about it scared him but at the same time made him excited. He really couldn’t understand how Clara was here with him, accepted him, but he was happy. All of it was too good to be true. But unfortunately, he was too much of a goner to pull back.

Then suddenly he was awake with a man shouting at his face through a vortex.

“It’s Lois!” the man had said. “It’s Lois Lane. She’s the key!” He had also said that he was too soon. And something about finding _‘them’_. Bruce didn’t know who _‘them’_ were but before he could even think about it…

He was awake again.

And this time, for sure. Hopefully.

He was looking at the _‘Decryption Complete’_ screen and then the LexCorp’s main page.

But instead of looking though the files and finding out who the White Portuguese is, Bruce opened a new page, searching for Clara Kent.

There she was, her photo standing beside her personal information, looking just like he first saw her and just like in the dream, hair in a bun, black framed glasses on her face. Then he hesitantly clicked to a different file, the file he spent his months to gather, and found the glass-free face, framed by wavy dark hair. The face of the most recognized woman on the world.

He put those two photos together and that was it. There was no doubt left. It was her. Clara was Superwoman.

Bruce stared at the two photos, finding the subtlety of the disguise of glasses and hair fascinating and too simple. “She’s fooling everyone,” he quietly said. But just because he saw her in a dream –a very good one, to be honest- and knew her identity, he wasn’t going to let his thoughts of her change or let her be a distraction to him. He had a job as Batman, he had to find out more about the White Portuguese and where he was.

He closed both of the pictures and returned to the LexCorp’s driver.

Even though she was distracting Bruce Wayne, Clara Kent was not going to distract Batman.

\----

Bruce Wayne was invited to another opening ceremony at Metropolis. Normally, he would find an adequate excuse and politely refuse the invitation, then continue his daily training. But Alfred, ever the concerned butler, stated that he had an image to run as Bruce Wayne, as much as Batman. He knew the butler was right, as always, but he still didn’t feel like being _‘Brucie’_ that night.

Nevertheless, there he was, smiling at everyone under the mask of a billionaire playboy and in a well-tailored, Italian suit.

Just as he was looking around to find someone who would entertain him, he saw _her._

She was just standing there, alone, looking at the people with a hesitant look on her face and a shy expression in her brilliant blue eyes, and she was in a… _dress?_ _‘So, she’s not wearing the suit,’_ Bruce thought. _‘Bet she’s hiding it inside her purse or something.’_ Her glasses and the bun were on the place, hiding her away. The shiny black curls that escaped from her usual messy bun were falling around her make-up-free face. She was wearing a knee-length, navy blue dress, which fitted her body and showed of her legs. The boat neck of the dress was revealing her long column of a throat and her classy collarbone, and her not too much but more than enough back décolleté was just… perfect.

Bruce hated her for looking that amazing.

Well… at least he tried…

Before deciding to approach her.

\----

Clara was bored, to say the least. She was surrounded by fake smiles, polite conversations and people who used money as toilet papers. Once again, she was trying to do her job at _the Planet_ and apparently Perry thought it was a brilliant way to redeem herself by sending her to this event. And Lois was still investigating a bunch of complicated stuff. So she was alone. And bored.

As usual.

But suddenly she felt a large, calloused hand at the small of her back and she quickly turned around to tell the person to go away, but the words died in her mouth when she saw the handsome face of a man who she was seriously fed up with finding at every corner, looking at her.

Bruce Wayne, a.k.a Batman, the vigilante she was starting to hate.

Yes, it was too easy for her to see behind the mask he wore the first time they met as Superwoman and Batman.

When Clara was staring at his smirking face, she tried not to get angry, remembering the people he branded and sent to jail and the families he destroyed as the Dark Knight.

Bruce leaned to her ear and said, “Fancy meeting you here, Miss Kent.”

“Somehow, I’m not surprised, Mr. Wayne,” she said, with a bored voice she was trying to maintain. “After all, to a person like yourself, old habits die hard, right?”

Bruce laughed at her apparent attitude. “Obviously. But this time, I’m sure I can at least steal a dance from you, Miss Kent.”

Before she could say no, he was dragging her to the dance floor, where couples of all kinds were swaying elegantly with the soft music playing.

When Bruce put his large hands on her waist, Clara raised one dark brow, silently asking _‘Seriously?’_ in a way that tells him she was not impressed. Bruce, or _‘Brucie’_ as gossipmongers liked to call him, only shrugged in a fake, sheepish way.

As Clara, she knew she should at least try to make an escape but she was feeling more Superwoman than Clara at the time, while she was looking at the smug face of Batman.

So she took the challenge and hooked one of her arms under his shoulder and put the other on his neck. She didn’t think that bold and unplanned move would leave them in a very intimate position -their eyes were at the same height and their noses were almost touching, Clara was trying hard not to look at his lips- but there was no backing up now. That small moment when she was feeling brave and challenging was gone already, leaving a shy and dizzy Clara behind. She tried not to make herself look worse than she already was.

“So, Miss Kent,” Bruce started, voice husky and low for only Clara to hear. For a second she thought he was eyeing her lips too, but she could’ve been totally wrong. “Can I ask you why you were so interested in the vigilante of Gotham, the last time we were together? When you ask a man questions about another man, it’s hard for us to not feel competitive, you know. Are you a fan?”

“No,” she said, without realizing she was somehow breathless. “Merely a reporter.” A pause. “Can I ask you why do you seem to hate Superwoman so much?”

“Well, she is a vigilante as much as the Bat of Gotham-”

“No, actually not,” she cut him, feeling suddenly defensive.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Vigilante means someone who takes the law into their own hands and accords, as by avenging a crime. And that’s not who Superwoman is. She tries to help people but tries to stay away from the punishments laws would give. She’s not trying to be law, she’s only helping.”

For a second Bruce was silent. Then he said, “Well, it seems like you’re trying to make justifications for her.” 

“No, I’m not-”

“Doesn’t matter,” he cut in. “What I think is that she is an alien and she has the power to kill us all if she’s having a bad day. She has powers and abilities we’ll never have. Because after what happened with her own enemies and the thousands of people who died in Metropolis, I’m just concerned about what will happen should she decide we’re only worthless humans and our planet is just trash.”

“She would never do that,” Clara said, passion clear on her voice. “This planet has been a home and these humans have been a family to her. She would never went rogue.”

“Then tell me, if anyone of her… family or loved ones were in danger, don’t you think she would do everything in her power to save them?”

In the moment of silence, Clara could see his point. But she would never, _ever_ do that. She tried to think of a way to make him understand that but somehow, she knew she would be insufficient, no matter what.

They kept swaying gently, not knowing how to be polite and keep talking. But Clara had questions. So she looked at Bruce’s intense brown eyes and decided to talk. “So you think if Superwoman would go rogue, Batman should be the one to stop her,” she said, taking a risk with subtly revealing her knowledge about his identity and her own. Because thinking about it, she knew the World’s Greatest Detective would already know who she was.

There was no surprise in Bruce’s face. “I’m saying that if Superwoman would go rogue, someone would have to stop her. And I personally think that the Batman would be that person to step up and save the rest of the world.”

“I think if Batman thinks of it this way, both he and his alter ego really care for the mankind, underneath that gloomy attitude and bat cowl. But Batman should also know that Superwoman isn’t the one to abuse her powers, even when the people she loves are in danger.”

“So you’re saying that Superwoman would be willing to sacrifice her family for the rest of the world? She didn’t seem like it at all, when she flew all the way to the Africa, to save her friend.”

“I’m saying that she would do her best at saving those people but there are boundaries she wouldn’t cross.”

“Then I think Superwoman has good intentions about all this, but as they say, the road to hell is made of good intentions.”

“So you or Batman would never trust her?” Clara asked, suddenly curious and about his answer.

“I’m saying I, and possibly Batman, trust her good will but we don’t exactly trust her self-control. Or, at least we would need something to prove us wrong. Because she really made some major mistakes while dealing with her own people in a different planet.”

For a minute they kept swaying silently. Bruce’s hands were still gripping her waist gently but tightly enough and they were still staring each other intensely. Clara was surprised to find that she wasn’t angry anymore but she was kind of… hurt.

“But then,” she started. “If Batman would go rogue, who would stop him?”

“I think he’s merely a human under a bat costume,” Bruce said, in a careless way. “He would do no serious harm. But if it comes to that, I think he’s the one to stop himself.”

“So we should only rely on his self-control skills while we have no proof of it,” Clara said, seriously. “Unless you haven’t noticed, he may be a mortal but the people he has influence over or the long list of damages he’s done, is a lot. He uses fear as a weapon. People are already wary of him. He’s almost rogue anyway.”

This time, it was silent on Bruce’s part. So Clara took that to her advantage and said, “I think he shouldn’t underestimate himself, but at the same time he shouldn’t overestimate his abilities, either.”

Again, a moment filled only with music passed. It was almost like their eyes were glued to each other’s’ face. Clara couldn’t even look away from that handsome face and deep eyes.

“Mr. Wayne,” Clara started again, voice down to a murmur. “If Superwoman asked help from Batman to save those people she couldn’t save with her own methods, would Batman help?”

“Batman isn’t someone to help people,” said Bruce, gravelly.

“Then what’s he doing with fighting crime? Or how does he thinks to stop Superwoman?”

Bruce frowned a little, seemingly in thought. “I think if it comes to that he’d consider the situation through. But about stopping her, I think he knows that Superwoman isn’t indestructible.” Clara frowned at that, so he knew about Kryptonite. “But I also think that he’d only use his sources in necessity.”

They stopped asking questions to each other and parted with polite words, but not until the song ended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seriously hope that Bruce finding out about Clara in his dream isn't as silly as I fear. But seriously though, the consciousness of human mind is one fascinating thing. And I had those moments when my dreams reminded me something or when I get inspired to do something after a dream so... Yeah, please tell me what you think! See ya soon -I hope :))


	3. Chapter 3

### Chapter 3

When the Senator June Finch declared Superwoman guilty at the court and called her for a hearing, the whole world was waiting. Martha Kent was waiting what her daughter would after talking to her. Lois Lane was waiting when she made her way to the Capitol. Bruce Wayne was waiting in his room, watching the whole wall made of televisions.

But nobody, not even Superwoman, was waiting the explosion planned by Lex Luthor or the hundreds of deaths after that.

\----

Superwoman looked at the people in front of her, after handing the woman she saved to the medic. Some of them were severely hurt, most of them were dead. And it was all her fault.

She didn’t even try to stop that one tear sliding down to her cheek.

She found Lois between the other people standing by, looked at her troubled face and suddenly, she couldn’t take it anymore.

Superwoman took off with a booming sound before anyone can approach her.

\----

“Superwoman was never real,” Clara said miserably, to Lois who was looking at her like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “It’s just a dream of a farmer from Kansas.”

“That farmer’s dream,” started Lois, passionately. “Is all some people have. It’s all that gives them hope.” She pointed one short finger at the S symbol on her chest. “This means something.”

Clara shook her head. “It did on my world. But my world doesn’t exist anymore.”

And trying not to see the look of desperation on her best friend’s face, she floated away from the window, leaving Lois alone.

\----

Bruce was trying to ignore the stab of emotions in his chest while looking at the graves of his parents. There was grief, sadness and guilt, as always, but this time there was something else.

Bruce was always good at hiding his true emotions from the rest of the world, but he was always _aware_ of how he felt. And right now, his heart was trying to rip itself into half –torn apart with what he should do and what he _wanted_ to do. He had to end Superwoman, but he couldn’t ignore his feelings for Clara. He had to protect the earth but he also wanted to have something for himself for once. He also wanted to have a normal life, have a certain blue eyed wonder by his side and wanted her to _love_ him back, but… People –especially Bruce himself- didn’t always get what they wanted, and he knew it like he knew his own name. 

“Look Alfred,” Bruce said while turning to his friend, trying to clear his voice from any emotion. “The only fault that people who were on the court yesterday had, was to be where Superwoman was. So maybe Superwoman didn’t plan this, and maybe somebody is framing her. But this needs to stop. People has to stop dying just because they’re on the same planet that Superwoman is. I’m going to stop her before something like this happens again.”

Alfred couldn’t do anything but look at the face of the boy who lost so much.

\----

“And I believe the swiftest path to Superwoman,” trailed Lex, while walking behind Lois. “Is a pretty little road, called Lois Lane.”

Lois was falling down, but before she knew it, her best friend had her in her arms, carrying her in a bridal hold, flying her to safety.

The second she set her feet on the ground she hugged her friend tightly. “You came back,” she mumbled. When she stepped away and looked at her, the person she saw wasn’t Clara Kent, but the determined face of Superwoman.

Superwoman nodded and flew to the top of the building Lex shoved Lois off.

When she came to a stop she heard the excited voice of Lex Luthor shouting, “Boy, do we have problems up here!”

She landed on the roof, anger clearly written in her perfectly chiseled face.

“The problem of… of evil in the world!” said Lex. “The problem of absolute virtue.”

“I’ll take you without breaking you,” said Superwoman angrily. “Which is more than you deserve.”

But Lex kept continuing as if he didn’t hear her talking. “The problem of you, on top of everything else, and not in the fun way. You above all. Ah, ‘cause that’s what a Goddess is. Isis. Diana. Asherah. Kala-El –or Kala Jor-El as a tribute to the father you never knew. Clara... Jocelyn... Kent."

“Y’see, what we call a God or a Goddess depends upon our tribe, Clara Jo. Because a Goddess is tribal, a Goddess takes sides. No woman or man in the sky intervened when I was a boy to deliver me from Daddy’s fists and abominations. Mhm, I’ve figured it out way back. If God is all powerful, he cannot be all good. If he’s all good, he cannot be all powerful. And neither can you be. They need to see the fraud you are. With their eyes. The blood on your hands.”

“What have you done?” asked Superwoman, with concern on her voice and a frown on her face.

“And tonight they will,” said Lex, again not hearing her. “Yes, because you, Clarabelle, my lovely friend, have a date! Across the bay.” He pointed straight ahead, to the bat signal she perfectly knew whom it belonged to. “Ripe fruit, his hate. Two years growing. But it didn’t take much to push over actually. The little red notes, big bang, _‘You let your family die!’_. And now, you will fly to him, and you will battle him, to the death. Black and Blue. Fight night! The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. The Goddess versus Man. Day versus Night. Daughter of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham!”

She looked at him with despise. “You think I’ll fight with him for you?”

“Yes, I do,” he said, nodding. “I think you’ll fight, fight, fight for the lady.”

“She’s safe on the ground,” said Superwoman challengingly. “How ‘bout you?”

“Close, but I’m not talking about the sister. No, everybody’s special lady… is their _mother,_ ” Lex said while throwing the photos of a tortured Martha Kent on Superwoman’s feet.

Before she knew it, she was kneeling on the ground, trying not to throw up on the sight of her mother on the photos.

“Martha, Martha, Martha! The mother of a flying demon must be a witch. And the punishment for witches, what is that? Oh, that’s right, death by fire.”

“WHERE IS SHE?!” Superwoman shouted while her blue eyes turned to red with heat.

“I don’t know, I wouldn’t let them tell me!” squawked Lex, a mad excitement in his voice. “So here’s the deal: If you kill me, Martha dies. If you fly away, Martha also dies. But, if you kill the Bat… Martha lives.”

She casted her now blue eyes to the ground, whispering something Lex couldn’t hear. So he asked, “What was it, love?” genuinely confused and curious.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked, her voice sounding actually tired and afraid.

“To prove everyone wrong, of course!” shouted Lex. “That one person who stole the world’s heart is nothing but a cheating alien! And that she can be destroyed or kill someone else to save herself!”

“I don’t want to fight,” she whispered.

“You will,” said Lex, crouching on the ground. He picked one of the photos, where her mother looked horrible, and showed it to Superwoman. “Unless you want our dear Martha dead.”

“You don’t understand,” she said brokenly. _“I can’t.”_

Lex looked at her for a second, thinking with his complicated mind, figurative gears turning in his brain.

And then… 

“Oh, no!” He started to laugh. “Oh, hell, no! You _like_ him, don’t you? _You like the Bat!_ The Goddess has fallen in love with the Man! Oh, this is terrific but I think our dear Brucie-boy would disagree. This is gonna be _a-mazing!_ The fall of the guardian angel will be by the Man’s hands, after all! The Maiden of Might, the Woman of Steel, falls for the Dark Knight himself! I feel like this fight is going to be somewhat bigger than a… _lover’s spat,_ wouldn’t you say so, Miss Kent?” Then he reached forward to her crouched form and petted her dark curls. "There we go now. The Goddess bends to my will now, in more than one point! To save Martha, love, you have to bring me the head of the Bat. Or to spare your love, you have to sacrifice your mother! Oh, man I love it, what a Shakespearian plot twist!” Then he looked at his watch. “But by God, would you look at the time?! When you came here, you had an hour. Now, it’s less.”

Then he got on the helicopter and flew away.

Superwoman stared at the ground for a moment, desperation making her think faster than ever.

She was never the one to overestimate her powers.

But for a fact, she knew she was fast. She could look around to find her mother. 

Because even though she may be a dream, Superwoman wasn’t easily defeated. And now, she had to do something.

She took off again, with a booming sound, a new goal and determination in her mind.

\----

When she landed in front of Lois and softly called her name, she was feeling like the world was over. “I couldn’t find her,” she whispered.

“Who?” To say Lois was confused, would be an understatement.

“He has my mother and I couldn’t find her, Lo. I’ve looked everywhere for her, _goddammit, everywhere,_ and I couldn’t find her. I’ve… I’ve failed her.”

“Clara, no-”

“I have to go to Gotham to convince him help me.”

Lois frowned in confusion. “Who, Batman?”

“Or he has to die.”

Lois frowned even deeper at the tone of unwillingness and guilt in Clara’s voice. “Clara, please, I don’t understand!”

When she finally lifted her head and looked at Lois’ face, with a bittersweet expression on her face, Lois knew her friend wasn’t going to tell her jack. And she didn’t. Instead she just shook her head and cryptically said, “No one stays good in this world.”

Superwoman flew away with her red cape trailing behind her before a very confused Lois Lane could do anything to stop her.

\----

“Well,” stated Batman. “Here I am.”

“Bruce,” said Superwoman, somewhat frantic. “Please, you have to listen to me. I need your help-”

Then the magnetic force fields coming from the sides interrupted her. She saw where the sources are, and she destroyed them easily. She started to walk to him again, but this time faster –in case he tried to stop her again. 

“Bruce,” she started again. “I didn’t come here to fight, I came to ask-”

This time, dozens of automatic guns started firing while the bullets bounced off of her. When she destroyed the guns with her red, heat vision in seconds, she could hear Batman’s heart beat had gotten faster. _‘He’s scared,’_ she thought and it was quite logical, considering the armor he was wearing and the weapons he was using against her. But she still didn’t want to fight with him, and she didn’t want to attack him either, so she tried again. “Listen to me!” she shouted. “Damn it, Bruce, Lex has my mother and I need your help!”

Batman looked at her for a second… before hurling metal blades – _batarangs,_ she remembered- at her face.

Superwoman was officially pissed when she caught three offending blades between her fingers. What was wrong with him! He’d told her he’d at least think about it! She was risking her mother’s limited time for just trying to talk to him, but he was acting like a testosterone filled, meat-headed paranoid, for God’s sake!

Superwoman grabbed Batman by the chest piece of his armor and flew him to a nearby apartment, crashing him into it. Then she made her way to the roof and threw Batman at the Bat signal, watching him come to a stop just before rolling down to the ground.

“Stay down!” she shouted, when she landed to the roof as well. “If I wanted it, you’d be dead already!”

Then he threw her a smoke bomb, to slow her down. But Superwoman had super-speed so she was next to him in a second. 

Or apparently where he used to be.

She turned to the sound of a gun cocking and caught the bullet that was coming to her between her fingers. Then the bullet exploded right into her face, leaving a trail of green gas behind it. The feeling that gas brought was too familiar, a sensation she hoped she would never encounter again. But she knew what it was while the gas was weakening her, leaving no strength to stand up. She didn’t know how Batman got his hands on Kryptonite but she finally understood that he really wanted to _kill_ her. 

She gasped and chocked on her breath and fell down to her knees. Everything was too painful, she couldn’t even see properly. She really felt like dying for a second because of the amount of the green gas she got into her system.

“That’s it,” said Batman, in his merciless, robotic voice. “Breathe in. That’s fear. You’re not brave. Men are brave.” 

Superwoman, and Clara, was used to insults or mean words but this… this was somehow worse than anything she ever heard. These words coming from him, was like getting hit by Kryptonite gas all over again. And it made her suddenly very angry and irrational. So she was totally not to blame when she abruptly got up and threw her fist to Batman’s face.

Batman easily blocked her punch, shocking Superwoman at her lack of strength. But she wasn’t going to back up.

As they were fighting as equals, Batman was starting to land more and more blows on her. He was also mercilessly taunting her. “I bet your parents, _your kidnapped mother_ , taught you, that you mean something. That you’re here for a reason.” Then he punched her in the gut, hard. “My parents taught me a different lesson. Dying in the gutter. For no good reason at all. They taught me the world only makes sense, if you force it to. You were never a goddess. You are never even a human.”

Batman landed a hard, bone-wrecking kick on Superwoman and sent her lying on top of a glass roof, panting heavily, her back arching in pain, trying to get her strength back. Then he jumped up high and landed on her, breaking the glass under her and leaving her honest-to-god in pain when she fell to the ground.

Knowing that Bruce would never return her feelings hurt like hell _already,_ and the feelings she had towards him was _still_ hard to ignore, but the physical pain clouded all of them momentarily. So even though she was hurting, she felt like she could justify her self-defense against the man who was trying to kill her.

Because, yes, she was hurt, but she was also healing fast.

After he landed next to her with a grappling hook, Batman let her struggle when she tried to get up and renew her composure. She propped herself up with the help of a near-by wall but the second her knees were supporting her whole weight, Batman shoved her at the wall, hard. And then he started to punch her, again and again. He thought the Kryptonite would buy him more time but he could see that with each punch, Superwoman was gaining her strength back.

When the last punch echoed through her jaw bone, Superwoman started to float, figuring that the only way to talk to the Batman, is to knock him out first. With a slight smirk and a cocked head at his scared face, she flew towards him and sent him down to the lower level of the abandoned building.

This time, Superwoman had an advantage, but she wasn’t going to do anything. She silently watched as Batman, with his partly broken cowl, got up to his feet, but she still didn’t know what to do or say at that point.

But apparently Batman had other plans, because he stumbled away from her, reaching for some other deadly weapon in his belt. Superwoman sighed tiredly, she really didn’t want to do this.

Before she could do anything else, she heard another bullet being fired. As she was Superwoman, faster than a speeding bullet, she easily dodged the bullet, but when it hit the wall, it still exploded and bathed her in the deadly green gas.

The feeling of helplessness was back and it was chocking her –along with the Kryptonite. She stumbled for a few second then fell on her knees once more.

“Why…” she gasped out. “Why are you doing this?” She coughed harshly. “Don’t you understand? All of this is Lex’s plan.”

 _“His plan?”_ Batman yelled. “People died because of you, before he even came into the picture! If you are the so-called-heroine everybody think of you, then why didn’t you even try to save those people that died in the cross-fire of that _fucking_ battle with that _fucking_ alien?!”

“Because I was trying to save the _whole_ planet!” she shouted back. “After everything was over, I grieved for every single person I failed to save. Every woman, man and child that got suffocated, got crashed and died under the hard concrete! But you! You’re the one to talk! All the people you branded, all the people you _‘questioned’_ and killed, how is that any better than what you’re accusing me with?”

“Those were thugs, crooks, _killers_ themselves! It was for the greater good!”

 _“‘Greater good?!’_ Bruce, because of you families was torn apart, good people died, innocent people fear for their lives, fear that you’ll come after them as well! The way you work or the kind of people you deal with does not justify your actions! I might want to kill you as much as you want to kill me!”

After a couple of thunder rolls, with the most dangerous voice she heard, he said, “You’re welcome to try.”

“Bruce, I don’t want to do this! You’re not my enemy!”

“But you are mine!” he shouted, but there was something amiss in his voice. It was almost like… he didn’t say that whole-heartedly. _‘He’s in denial,’_ she thought, genuinely surprised. _‘He doesn’t want to do this, either.’_

Not wanting to trigger him to action again, Superwoman got to her feet, as slow as she could manage. “Don’t do this, Bruce. I can see that you don’t want to.”

“You have no idea about what I want!” he yelled. “You don’t fucking _know_ me!”

“No, maybe not,” she quietly said. “But you believed that everything you did was for the greater good. You were trying to help people, trying to assure that your city and the rest of the world was safe. And I can understand that feeling. Please, Bruce, we don’t have to fight. And I still need your help with saving my mother.”

Superwoman could see Batman’s face, the slight hesitation, the internal dilemmas he was having. He was confused, lost. She knew that he was a hero, a good man with bad decisions. And he was just trying to ensure people’s safety. Of course she understood that. It was what she was trying to do in that battle with Zod, after all.

So Superwoman took a small step to him and hold out a hand to show that she wasn’t trying to do anything. But suddenly, all those expressions vanished from Batman’s armored face and pure rage appeared.

 _“NO!”_ he shouted. “You won’t distract me from my goal! I don’t trust you with all those powers! I know what power does to people, and I can’t have you turn into one of those people! Don’t you understand, _I don’t want you to lose yourself too!_ The humans are so used to having you as their champion, as their heroine, as their _miracle,_ but what will happen to them when you go rogue or some other alien manages to control your mind and make you kill people! I can’t control you, Clara, so I have to stop you! And you will not change my mind!”

Then he determinedly walked to a particular stick standing inside the floor and pulled it out. She had to shield her eyes to protect herself from the huge Kryptonite spear and its bright, green light.

Superwoman didn’t even know how to feel. She didn’t know how to show Bruce that she would never use her powers against a world where she had friends, where she had a home, where she had a mother who was about to be killed.

But she was willing to try. Because she really cared for Bruce’s opinion about her and she needed him to see that they were alike. That even though she wasn’t human, she had a heart. That she was feeling as human as him at that moment.

So she took a deep breath and started to talk, slowly and quietly. “When I was a kid, my father was the only role model I had for almost everything. His name was Jonathan Kent and he always said that the only thing he and my mother could give me was love –and a lesson about how to be a good person.” She could see that Batman was confused about the sudden change of subject, but Superwoman continued talking. 

“I practically worshipped him. But when I was 18, I lost him in a tornado that happened in Smallville. I could’ve saved him, it would be as easy as breathing, but he wanted me to hide my powers. He knew that the humans wasn’t ready for an alien in their world. And I had to watch him die because I trusted his judgement."

“When Zod threatened the whole planet, I was still reluctant about revealing myself, but I knew I would only use my powers for good. I didn’t have any faith in myself but I still believed my Pa. In couple of hours, the whole world had some thoughts. Even though some people saw that I wasn’t the villain, the others and the media hated me, claiming that I should just leave their planet. At that time, I thought they were right. But after that battle, I also saw that I could save people with my powers, and I promised myself that as long as I breathed, I would protect the innocents. Imagine how… _devastated_ I felt after seeing the damage I’ve done."

“Then tonight Lex captured my friend, Lois Lane, and pushed her from a _goddamn_ skyscraper. He told me that I had to bring him your head to save my mother. I thought I could use my powers to find my mom but I failed. _My powers_ failed me. So I had to come to you to ask for help. You see, Bruce, my powers aren’t everything, and they aren’t as much as you think they are. For the last 15 years I only had one parent alive and tonight I failed her. Her name is _Martha Kent,_ and tonight she’s as good as dead, if you don’t help me save her.”

He felt the word _‘Martha’_ echo inside his head and he had to stop himself from finally losing it. The little 8-years-old kid inside Batman felt like he was witnessing his parents’ deaths, all over again. The way his father, Thomas, shielded himself against them and the way he fell to the ground with a shot. The way the murderer hooked his gun to his mother’s, _Martha’s,_ pearl necklace and the way those pearls roll to the floor.

Batman, _no, Bruce,_ hurled the spear away from Clara, with a booming roar.

He was panting heavily, as if the reminder of his mother hurt him physically. He was shaking with rage and grief and… guilt again. But this time, he was also shaking because of what he did to Clara.

Just as he was turning to face her again, a panicked shout of _“CLARA!”_ interrupted him.

He slowly turned around and saw a petite, red-headed woman running to them, fear, worry and determination coloring her face.

She ran past him and hugged Superwoman, repeatedly asking if she was alright.

Superwoman hugged the short woman gently, he couldn’t help but notice the height difference between them, and quietly said, “I’m fine, Lois. It’s okay.” When she caught her friend looking doubtfully but pointedly at Batman, she smiled slightly and said, “Really, Lo,” to assure her. “It’s fine.”

Lois nodded a little, then “The scout ship,” she said, hurriedly. “It seems to be drawing power from the city. It’s gotta be Lex, Clara.”

Batman took a step towards Superwoman. “They need you at that ship,” he quietly said, his voice wavering through his voice-changer. “I’ll find your mother.”

She shook her head determinately. “My mother needs me.”

He grabbed her shoulder in an insistent but still gentle grip. “I’ll make you a promise,” said Batman with a strong voice. “ _Martha,_ won’t die tonight.”

Superwoman nodded to him and started to turn away. But before she could go any further, he grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

“Clara,” said Batman. “I’m… I…”

“It’s okay, Bruce.” She could almost feel the look of surprise on her best friend’s face. Lois Lane, ever the Pulitzer winner reporter.

“No, it’s not. I should’ve listened to you.”

She looked at him with a tired expression and said, “Yes, you should’ve, Bruce. But you didn’t and I get it, because you had your reasons. If we make it out alive this night, I promise you, everything will be forgotten. I won’t hold anything against you, because I know you are a good man. But right now, I need your help and we don’t have much time. My mom doesn’t have much time.”

When he nodded and released her wrist she took off, flying to the dark clouds. Batman had meant it when he promised her though. He was going to save Martha. Not another Martha was going to die tonight. Not on his watch.

\----

Bruce, rather than Batman, felt a genuine relief when the explosion stopped and he saw the scared but unmarked face of Clara’s mother. He let his lips lift up a little, trying to assure the woman that it’s alright.

“It’s okay. I’m a friend of your daughter's.”

Martha Kent smiled shakily at him and nodded. “I figured. It’s the cape.”

Bruce couldn’t help but smile back at her.

\----

Batman could feel the hot air of explosion hitting him through the Batmobile. He guessed what had happened but he didn’t want to believe it. _Couldn’t_ believe it. He pushed a button with an urgency he was trying to hide. “Alfred,” he heard himself sounding desperate. “What happened? What did they do to her?”

“They… they fired a nuke to them, Master Bruce,” said Alfred, voice remorseful.

Batman felt like his throat was closing on the breath he took. “Clara…” he murmured. He didn’t know if Kryptonians could survive a nuke bomb, but... he was not going to jump to conclusions.

He stepped on the gas, urging the Batmobile to go faster.

\----

“Did you find the spear?” a very much alive Superwoman asked.

“No,” stated Batman, with a pointed look and a deadpanned voice. “I’ve been a little busy.”

“Fellow warrior,” called the female in front of them. It was Wonder Woman, or Diana Prince, with her gauntlets, her shield, her sword and her epic entrance. She nodded at her, and Superwoman recalled their first encounter in Lex’s party, so she nodded back.

“I would always help a sister in need,” said Diana.

“Thank you.”

Batman stepped up and came next to Superwoman. “Is she with you?” he asked with a curious voice.

Superwoman shrugged and said, “Kinda,” sheepishly. “We met on the way.”

\----

Superwoman didn’t think twice when she saw the blow aimed for the Batman. She flew between him and the monster without a plan, took the blow that was meant for the Caped Crusader, then stared falling into the ruins of a nearby building.

When she went down, she heard Diana’s battle cry and guessed that she had taken her place. For a moment she stayed like that, limbs and hair everywhere, eyes closed and cape around her like a bed, lying in the debris. Then slowly, she started to open her eyes and… saw that the Batman was right next to her, holding her arm to help her up.

“Why did you do that?” he asked in an angry voice.

“You wouldn’t have survived the impact.”

“But you had no plan, no back-up weapon, nothing, why in the hell did you do that?!” Now his voice had taken a desperate note to it.

“Because like I told you before, Bruce,” stated Superwoman calmly, when she finally managed to find her footing without swaying dangerously. “I’d do everything in my powers to protect my loved ones.”

She didn’t need the X-ray vision to look through his cowl to see the winded and shocked expression Bruce had.

But before any of them can make another comment they heard Diana scream in agony as she took a blow from Doomsday. So Superwoman returned to the fight by flying away and leaving a stunned and speechless Batman behind.

\----

“I got it!” shouted Lois Lane with the Kryptonite spear in her hand. “I got the spear, Clara!”

After the heroes left her alone in the ruins of their fight, Lois realized that the spear Batman brought had been the only thing that hurt Clara. She didn’t exactly know the extent of Kryptonite or the monster, but she figured that they might need it.

So when she saw all of them return, she started running to them.

But as she got the attention she wanted from Superwoman, she also managed to get Doomsday to look at her way, too. As Doomsday started to run to her, she didn’t know what to do or where to hide. But luckily for her, Superwoman had gotten to Doomsday and Batman had gotten to the reporter before anything can happen. Superwoman punched the creature away as Batman took Lois by the arm, ordered “Move!” in a husky voice and shoved her behind a nearby truck.

They breathed hard for a moment and Lois took that moment to look at Batman –or the frowning face of Bruce Wayne.

The black cowl was gone, finally revealing his painfully handsome features. He had some bruises here and there but other than that, he didn’t look too bad. Both of them turned to look when they heard the booming sound arriving near them.

Superwoman landed in front them and involuntarily groaned the moment she saw the green gleam coming from the alien rock. Lois tried to tell Superwoman to go but she wasn’t going anywhere and Batman knew they didn’t have time for this.

He took the spear from Lois and walked next to Superwoman, asking “Now what do we do?”

Superwoman lifted her head from the ground for a second and with a serious voice, asked, “You’re a bat right?”

“Seriously? You want to criticize my choice of costume, _right now?”_

“Yes, you are, obviously,” she stated calmly. “But apparently, including you, no one else here can fly.”

It only took him a couple of seconds to get. “No. No way, Kent, don’t you dare!”

“Now it’s Kent, huh?” she asked, with an amused but tired tone. “Well then, Wayne, you should know that I never listen to anyone. I’m really bad at following orders, if you don’t believe me, just ask LoLa, she knows it best.”

“You’re not taking the spear with you!”

“Then how do you reckon I should deal with the creature, genius?”

“You’re going to get yourself killed!”

“I would remind you that it was the real purpose of this night, or at least in your point of view, but because I’m a really nice person, I won’t.”

Batman could help but flinch at the truth of her words. But when he looked into her determination filled, impossibly blue eyes, he knew what was going to happen. Even though she was goofing around, he knew Superwoman was serious about this.

He looked at her messy hair, that wayward lock that seemed to be falling on her beautiful face in every occasion, her torn up suit, which did no good to hide her figure, her curves or her muscles away, and the red cape that kept flowing with the wild wind. She was the perfect image of a goddess, sure, but it wasn’t that appearance that had gotten to him. No, it was the shy, mild-mannered face of Clara Kent that peaked through the cracks that shook Bruce to the core. It was the way she knew she wasn’t going to make it out alive but still kept going, the way she finally made him believe there was good on this planet. It was the genuine look of fear on her face accompanying the determined and strong alto voice that finally made Bruce fall, hard.

All of this, all of her determination to finish the job only encouraged him to bring the idea he had on his mind to life.

Just as she was coming closer to him to take the spear out of his hand, he forcefully pulled the spear back, grabbed her wrist and brought her into a kiss.

He had kissed with countless women –and some men- before, but by the God he stopped believing when he was 8, it was more extraordinary than every single kiss he ever had before and it was even more brilliant and dizzying and mind-blowing he imagined it would be. The dream he had before was nothing compared to it. It was nothing and everything like he ever imagined before. But the most beautiful part of it was when Clara, actually, really, honest-to-god, _kissed him back,_ with those soft, _soft_ lips and almost-there, feather light brushes. Maybe it was because of the heat of the moment or even adrenaline that she reacted, but still, Bruce felt like _melting_ for that blissfully long minute. And he felt like he _fucking finally_ had something for himself. 

After they parted because of the ongoing war and the need of oxygen by Bruce’s side, Clara pressed their foreheads together and they simply just stood there.

“Now there’s no way I can stop doing this,” whispered Clara Kent.

His breath hitched in his throat. He was still trying not to be affected by her _‘loved ones’_ comment from earlier. He couldn’t even dare to hope but… could it be? Could she be… _returning_ his feelings? “Clara, please,” he felt himself whispering. “No.”

Clara shook her head softly against his forehead. “This is my world, Bruce. And I will do everything to protect it. To protect the humans on it. To protect _you._ ”

When she planted a final kiss to his lips, took the spear from his loosened grip and started to float away from his reach and to the creature, all Bruce could do was stare. He couldn’t even breathe as Clara’s yell of agony got lost with the creature’s roar.

The monster fell, and Clara fell with it.

And then it was over. She was _gone_ and all he could do was to collapse next to the body of the heroine this world didn’t deserve from the very beginning, ignore the crying reporter and the sad Amazonian, look into the horrible gash into her stomach and watch her now peaceful but lifeless face.

Superwoman was dead.

Clara Kent was dead.

And it was all his fault.

Bruce Wayne couldn’t remember any other moment in his life that he felt _this_ guilty. Not even watching his own parents die was _this_ bad. Even cradling Jason’s unmoving body wasn’t _this_ wrecking. He had failed someone again. And he knew, by heart, that he didn’t deserve to cope _this time._

And if pain really made us human, right now no one was more helpless and more humane than him.

Right now, Bruce Wayne was lost, more than ever.

\----

Lois Lane was… missing her, more than anything.

It had only been a week after the world lost its heroine and she lost her best friend but it still hurt. The grief, the repeat of her last moments playing behind her eyelids, the good memories they had, the way they helped each other, the way she dopily smiled, the way she laughed…

She really missed the best friend she had started to think as a sister.

And it was hurting so much.

So after she and Mrs. Kent dressed Clara ( _Clara’s body,_ she corrected herself, _Clara’s still and pale and dead body_ ) in one of the dresses from Clara’s limited dress options ( _she only owned three,_ had said Mrs. Kent, _she never liked dresses that much, even though she looked beautiful in them_ ), a white and elegant knee-length sundress and white flats, because Martha Kent refused to send her daughter to her grave in black clothing, she tried to find some comfort in the Kent house but despite a lot of people being there, there was this… eerie silence in the house, which was making her feel even worse than before. But still, she couldn’t help herself when she found Clara’s old room. Maybe she could try to cope with the things that resembled Clara Kent.

She was fascinated with the make-shift model of the solar system hanging from the ceiling. She tried to feel like the little Clara did when her parents told her who she really was. Did she feel sad? Did she feel lonely? Did she feel angry?

Well, after a while she forgot where Clara’s emotions ended and Lois Lane’s had started.

That was how Martha Kent found her.

She tentatively entered the room and silently hold out a brown envelope to her. “She was going to take you here for your birthday and give you this then,” she whispered. When Lois took the envelope she rubbed the young reporter’s shoulder and left, to give her some privacy.

There was a photo and a piece of paper inside the envelope. She decided to read the paper first. It was a letter, addressed to her.

 _‘Dear LoLa,’_ it started.

_‘My whole life was spent with running away or hiding from the people who could discover me. So naturally, I never had many friends. In fact, I didn’t have a friend until I met you, about two years ago. And even though I was this… alien the whole world feared, you still stuck with me. You were like the sister I never had. You keep saying that I saved your life in that day but it was actually you who saved mine and made me build a new one, when you decided to follow me into that Fortress. And for that, for everything you’ve done, I can never thank you enough. But still, thank you. Happy birthday Lo._

_Your older sister –because let’s face it, even though you’re older in the means of age, you’re still too short to be the older sibling- Clara Jo, a.k.a Smallville.’_

Looking at the photo, Lois saw the faces that belonged to herself and Clara. She remembered the day they took it. Clara kept making jokes about how she was a foot taller than Lois by using her as an armrest. Lois’ face had the perfect expression of annoyance on the photo, and she was trying to get Clara off of her by reaching to the further place she can get; Clara’s face. She had knocked the glasses away from her face halfway but Clara was still wearing one of the brightest grins she had. On the left corner of the photo, _**‘Happy B-day, LoLa,’**_ was written in Clara’s handwriting.

Lois couldn’t remember for how long she cried.

\----

“All the circuses back east are burying an empty box,” said the hollow voice of Bruce Wayne, while he was watching Clara’s best friend, Lois Lane, walk away from the graveyard.

“They don’t know how to honor her, except as a soldier, when she was like a goddess to them,” replied Diana Prince. Her voice was sad as well. It was not hard to understand that she was grieving a fellow soldier, too.

“No,” spat Bruce bitterly. “She wasn’t a goddess. She was better than that. And we didn’t deserve her. No one did. Everybody kept hating her for the last year and a half. And now she’s a hero in their eyes because she’s dead.”

“You keep talking about what everybody else did,” stated Diana, quietly. “But what did you do?”

After a moment of painful silence, “I believed what everybody else imposed on me when I should’ve listened to her own words before it was too late,” said Bruce, voice hoarse with emotion. “I believed that she had gone rogue, that she needed to be stopped, while the only thing she wanted was to protect people. I failed her at life. But I won’t fail her in death,” Bruce promised.

And Bruce Wayne always kept his promises, too.

\----

Bruce Wayne took a handful of the rich, brown earth and dropped it on top of Clara Kent’s coffin, tucked his hands inside the pockets of his expensive black jacket and silently walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, guys! So, this was the last chapter of 'Keeping the Promises' and I can't even begin to tell you how much happy you all made me. This could be the greatest achivement I've ever made, so I'm still excited, LOL :))) Thank you so much for each and every one of you, I really hope you liked this story. I have other fic ideas about Clara and Bruce, so you'll see me again. Eventually :) Until next time, people, love you all ^u^


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